WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner says he’s not in the “legacy business” and isn’t worried about how his tenure at the helm of the House will be remembered.

But as the Ohio Republican heads for the congressional exits, he has to decide whether he wants to secure a raft of legislative accomplishments in his final weeks, or simply keep the government open into December.

Congress’s to-do list is long and politically difficult — with lawmakers facing deadlines on highway funding, the debt limit, and a budget agreement. It’s not clear yet how much of that Boehner wants to tackle himself, and how much he wants to leave for his successor.

“I’m going to take this one day at a time,” Boehner told reporters Tuesday morning.

The House is poised to pass a short-term spending bill this week that will keep the government funded through Dec. 11 — and put off a fight over funding for Planned Parenthood, the health care provider that has come under scrutiny for its handling of fetal tissue.

Moderate Republicans and Democrats hope that stopgap spending measure will not be the last piece of legislation Boehner shepherds to President Obama’s desk.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, said he wants Boehner to push for a long-term highway bill, craft a framework for lifting the nation’s debt limit, and win reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank before he resigns on Oct. 30.

“I’d like to see him clear the decks of the things that might cause a problem for the leadership team” that takes over when he is gone, Stivers said.

Rep. Charlie Dent, a centrist from Pennsyvlania, offered a similar wish list for Boehner’s final weeks in Congress. He and others said they are worried that as soon as Boehner is out the door, Republicans will be back in the same place they are now: mired in an internal GOP fight over Planned Parenthood that could trigger a government shutdown.

But winning passage of a long-term spending bill or other sweeping measures would require Boehner to cooperate with congressional Democrats -- and would spark a fresh fight with conservatives who have battered him at every turn of his five-year speakership. Already some conservatives are plotting ways to block Boehner from pushing through a bevy of bills before he leaves.

On Tuesday, Boehner shrugged off questions about conservative efforts to block any final legislative flurry.

“If there’s a way to get some things done so I don’t burden my successor, I’m going to get them finished,” he said.

Stivers said Boehner doesn’t have to worry about the firebrands in his conference any more. “The pressure’s off,” Stivers said. “What can anybody do to him?”

Former Rep. Steve LaTourette, a close friend of Boehner’s, said it’s too early to say whether the speaker will “go big, or whether he is satisfied with just keeping the government open.”

LaTourette said Boehner will make that decision based on the wishes of his successor, not on any desire to burnish his own record. The current majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is the frontrunner to replace Boehner as speaker.

“If McCarthy says, ‘I don’t want to have that fight’ (over the debt ceiling or other hot-button issues), then I think John would not be afraid to put together a coalition of Republicans and Democrats to try to get those things off the table,” said LaTourette. “But if McCarthy says, ‘I’d prefer you not do that’ … John will honor that.”

Boehner’s legacy will also be intertwined with the wishes of his GOP counterpart in the Senate — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

On Tuesday, McConnell talked about securing a sweeping budget agreement, among others things, but said: “How much of that could come together before Speaker Boehner leaves, I have no earthly idea.”